Sky Blues find form to beat Phoenix

Sydney FC's twice-daily sessions under new coach Frank Farina are not about to end just because they have won their first A-League match in six weeks.

The Sky Blues notched up their third win of the season in beating fifth-placed Wellington Phoenix 2-1 at Westpac Stadium on Sunday, and did it without injured marquee signing Alessandro Del Piero.

The round 10 victory was Sydney's first since its fourth-round 2-1 win over Perth Glory in late October, and it came in Farina's first official match at the helm after Ian Crook resigned last month.

Former Socceroos coach Farina has been working his new team hard, scheduling double sessions and cancelling rest days as he looks to turn around a season that has Sydney mired at the bottom of the A-League ladder.

He sees no real reason for any change.

"It's not a matter of flogging them, it's not a punishment," a relaxed Farina said after Sunday's win.

"We'll have a double session next week on the Wednesday. It's more so that I'm new in the job - I've only been there eight days, nine days, and the double sessions are getting them to buy into the way I want to play.

"It's really just working on structure and shape, and how we want to play."

Farina said it was especially pleasing to see the way Sydney withstood intense late pressure from Wellington right up to the 94th minute.

Defender Sebastian Ryall, back after serving a one-match suspension, fired home a 46th minute header to give Sydney a 1-0 lead at the break, then Rhyan Grant doubled the lead with a right-foot striken the 69th minute.

But with captain Terry McFlynn sent off after his second yellow, and with Wellington hot on attack following in-form striker Jeremy Brockie's 90th minute penalty, the Sky Blues showed real focus and gritty defence to secure the win.

Farina says that composure had been missing in their previous matches.

"I'm not going to say complacency, but they were dying in the latter stages of games," he said.

"I felt the games I saw, the commitment and the passion wasn't there. That comes down to your work ethic, and this week we worked hard.

"I'm a firm believer that if that's the case in training, you carry that into the game, and we did that today."